Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong'o to Star in Danai Gurira's ECLIPSED at The Public This Fall

BroadwayWorld has just learned that Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o will make her New York stage debut this fall in the NYC premiere of Danai Gurira's new drama ECLIPSED, just added to The Public Theater's fall season.

Directed by Obie Award winner Liesl Tommy, the production will begin previews September 29, ahead of an official opening on Wednesday, October 14. A limited engagement, ECLIPSED will run through Sunday, November 8,

"Danai Gurira has written a brilliant play, ripped from the headlines, that looks at the terrible conflicts in post-colonial Africa with an eye that is both incisive and deeply compassionate," Artistic Director Oskar Eustis said in a statement today. "A feminist reading of the Liberian Civil War, a war that was ended by women, Eclipsed is both heart-breaking and profoundly life-affirming. We are delighted to welcome the extraordinary Lupita Nyong'o to The Public in this vitally important play."

Per press notes, ECLIPSE is set "amid the chaos of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a fragile community - until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Drawing on reserves of wit and compassion, ECLIPSED reveals distinct women who must discover their own means of survival in this deeply felt portrait of women finding and testing their own strength in a hostile world of horrors not of their own making."

Single tickets will go on sale Thursday, August 6 via (212) 967-7555, www.publictheater.org, or in person at the Taub Box Office at The Public Theater.

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LUPITA NYONG'O (The Girl) will next be seen in J.J. Abrams' highly anticipated Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as the motion capture character "Maz Kanata". The film will be released by Disney on December 18, 2015. She additionally just wrapped production in Uganda on Mira Nair's The Queen of Katwe opposite David Oyelowo, and lends her voice to Jon Favreau's upcomingJungle Book as "Raksha," set for release next April. Nyong'o made her feature debut in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, which earned her the Academy Award and SAG Award for "Best Supporting Actress". A graduate of the Yale School of Drama's acting program, Nyongo's stage credits include playing Perdita in The Winter's Tale (Yale Repertory Theater),Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew, as well as part of the cast in the original production of Michael Mitnick's Elijah.